Subscriber Dan+ Posted October 31, 2023 Subscriber Share Posted October 31, 2023 11 hours ago, Danny said: Hello Ly-Chester-City fans. You appear to be doing well in the Championship. Assuming you were to get promoted this season, how would you like your current squad to look next season? Players you want gone? Must keeps? Players who might be ready to step up a level? What would the squad look like and do you think you’d have the capacity to eventually get back to top 6? Players like Winks, Ndidi, Iheanacho, Justin, Ricardo etc... have all proven themselves in the Premier League so we already have a pretty good core of players. I think the likes of Hermansen can step up. The likes of Dewsbury-Hall and Faes for me were victims of Rodgers' ineptness in the latter years. Fatawu the winger we have on loan is starting to convince me he's a bit of a gem and we've got the option to get him permanently as well. I think we would probably need to invest in the defence, Vestergaard's been key this season but I do get the feeling he could come massively unstuck in the Premier League again. Getting back to the top 6... hard to say but I don't think it's impossible. The best case I can make is if you have a look at what happened to Villarreal around a decade ago, they went from making Europe regularly to seemingly out of nowhere getting relegated. They then got promoted at a canter, and in their first year back up finished 6th in La Liga. I'm not saying we will repeat this exact process, but I don't think it's beyond the realms of possibility that we could go up and finish in say the top half either. I will flip it around here and say how do you think teams like Crystal Palace, Brentford, West Ham etc... would be doing in the Championship? Do you think they would win 13 out of 14 games? It's completely plausible for me that we are a comfortable Premier League side already that simply underperformed to an extraordinary level in 2022/23. Ironically a player I'd like to see us go after again is Nicolas Gonzalez of Fiorentina. We were strongly linked in January, as were you in the summer I believe, and have therefore been looking out a bit for him whenever I've caught Fiorentina and I think he's got a load of ingredients to succeed. Pacey, creative, tricky but what sets him apart is his extraordinarily good aerial ability for a winger which profiles as well as literally any winger in Europe. There's a long way to go but we are looking a pretty good candidate to break the record for the points tally at this level. We're nearly a third into the season now and we've dropped points once. It's unreal consistency no matter how financially dominant we are. Everything that has happened this season just confirms everything I said about how big an underachievement last season was to be true. I really do think it's the biggest Premier League underperformance in my lifetime - Chelsea 2015/16 the only other candidate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator Stan Posted January 1 Author Administrator Share Posted January 1 Fatawu not going to the AFCON with Ghana. Great news for us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Posted January 5 Share Posted January 5 Stoke have a knack of signing players that I'm impressed with and then they seemingly go on to do nothing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator Stan Posted January 5 Author Administrator Share Posted January 5 Ndidi out for 3 months. Killer blow for us given his new role as #8 he was flourishing in next to Dewsbury-Hall. We definitely need to sign another midfielder with Praet seemingly on his way out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Posted January 8 Share Posted January 8 On 05/01/2024 at 15:01, Stan said: Ndidi out for 3 months. Killer blow for us given his new role as #8 he was flourishing in next to Dewsbury-Hall. We definitely need to sign another midfielder with Praet seemingly on his way out. Any chance Casadei just slots in there? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator Stan Posted January 8 Author Administrator Share Posted January 8 Just now, The Palace Fan said: Any chance Casedei just slots in there? Yeah he will most likely. But I'm still looking for consistency from him. He had a good game vs Millwall which is pleasing. But still think if we lose him or KDH, we're thin on the ground in that #8 position. I expect we'll be in the market still. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subscriber CaaC (John)+ Posted February 5 Subscriber Share Posted February 5 Quote Jamie Vardy: Leicester City striker says age just a number as he reaches 10 goals for season Jamie Vardy has been with Leicester City for almost 12 years Veteran striker Jamie Vardy says his age will not define him and credits Leicester City boss Enzo Maresca for helping him evolve this season. The 37-year-old came off the bench to score twice in Saturday's 5-0 win at Stoke, which took his season tally to 10 goals in all competitions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Gonzo Posted February 5 Share Posted February 5 On 30/10/2023 at 12:23, Stan said: I think the team should be built around Winks. Now there's a sentence I never thought I'd see. Good for him though, must be nice to kickstart his career and go from a squad player nobody really rated very highly at all to a key player at a club where the fans seem to really appreciate what he's offering to the club. Always is nice to see players get a chance to "rebuild" themselves - a bit like Solanke getting relegated and being treated as a shit meme player to now being one of the most important players at Bournemouth and the top English goalscorer in the top flight at the moment. I imagine this Leicester squad is arguably one of the most talented the Championship's ever seen, so if he's standing out in this squad... probably got a good future ahead of him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucas Posted March 7 Share Posted March 7 Must admit, I'm still not fully understanding of the situation at Leicester currently with this hanging over them, can't imagine they need this whilst trying to focus in a promotion race. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subscriber RandoEFC+ Posted March 7 Subscriber Share Posted March 7 FFP genuinely needs to be scrapped. Clubs genuinely guilty of financial doping don't fall foul of it and it hasn't prevented owners like the bloke at Reading from running clubs into the ground. All it's achieving right now is locking in advantages for clubs based on their long-term revenue and causing league tables to be rewritten multiple times a season, affecting the sporting integrity of relegation fights and promotion battles up and down the football league. Then because of the grey areas in the rules, the different mitigations, obfuscation and creative accounting put forward by football clubs, competitive results are being thrashed out in court rooms by lawyers and accountants. Nobody liked it when Chelsea and City bought their place at the top table but at least you knew the league table was actually the league table. They need to rip up the current rules and implement some sort of live accounting so that clubs know what they can and can't afford to do and any breaches can be as close to black and white as possible. The current system is being shown up as an absolute shitshow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator Stan Posted March 7 Author Administrator Share Posted March 7 I don't think anybody really knows what the rulings are or what will happen. So many clubs could fall foul of it, and it may be a situation where about 7 or 8 clubs start on negative points next season in PL. What I do find laughable is that we may be punished by EFL for a rule breach that doesn't necessarily concern them when you look at the seasons involved. Also, infuriatingly, is our senior hierarchy who have fucked about for way too long and some of those individuals are so far out of their depth that they've pretty much run us into the ground financially. Either way, it's become a non-competitive sport off the pitch. You can risk everything and lose it all, or not risk everything and get fucked anyway. PL only have the interest of a few clubs, the rest can go fuck themselves in their eyes. It's become a bit of a mockery now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subscriber Dan+ Posted March 7 Subscriber Share Posted March 7 I hold both views here that our board / DoF are totally inept and that much was clear last season, but also think that it's abundantly obvious these rules aren't fit for purpose. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subscriber Dan+ Posted March 7 Subscriber Share Posted March 7 1 hour ago, Stan said: I don't think anybody really knows what the rulings are or what will happen. So many clubs could fall foul of it, and it may be a situation where about 7 or 8 clubs start on negative points next season in PL. What I do find laughable is that we may be punished by EFL for a rule breach that doesn't necessarily concern them when you look at the seasons involved. Also, infuriatingly, is our senior hierarchy who have fucked about for way too long and some of those individuals are so far out of their depth that they've pretty much run us into the ground financially. Either way, it's become a non-competitive sport off the pitch. You can risk everything and lose it all, or not risk everything and get fucked anyway. PL only have the interest of a few clubs, the rest can go fuck themselves in their eyes. It's become a bit of a mockery now. This is the crux of it for me. It's just starting to render the whole thing pointless. I think we've been stupid with some of our contracts and whatnot but it's become clear, as much as people have pretended otherwise for years that the rules have been brought in to protect a certain hierarchy within the game. I mean you only have to remember that a few clubs tried to bring down the existing structure and completely got away with it. They're more powerful than the authorities. The negotiations were on the terms of those clubs - not the governing bodies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subscriber Dan+ Posted March 7 Subscriber Share Posted March 7 Tell you what though it's some going to do what we've done we've landed the worst of both worlds. Cut back enough to get ourselves relegated but ended up breaking the rules anyway. Not sacking Rodgers months, hell even a year or so beforehand truly one of the most costly decisions a club has made. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subscriber RandoEFC+ Posted March 7 Subscriber Share Posted March 7 2 hours ago, Stan said: Either way, it's become a non-competitive sport off the pitch. You can risk everything and lose it all, or not risk everything and get fucked anyway. PL only have the interest of a few clubs, the rest can go fuck themselves in their eyes. It's become a bit of a mockery now. This is the thing. Poor ownership is almost incidental now. Leicester used to be held up as the "Brighton" of the league not more than 5 years ago. Look at their scouting, look at how they've challenged the status quo, etc. A few poor transfer windows and bad decisions and you can find yourself relegated and irrelevant. It was Southampton before Leicester and the cycle will come for Brighton as well. Leicester have made plenty of mistakes over the past 3 years or so but compare that to how Chelsea or Man Utd have been run and your club looks like a model of sustainability. A handful of clubs are competing in a sport where they can afford to make mistakes and take risks. The rest of the pyramid is in constant damage limitation mode, trying to tread water to keep above the relegation line and below the PSR loss limit line. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subscriber RandoEFC+ Posted March 7 Subscriber Share Posted March 7 29 minutes ago, Dan said: I hold both views here that our board / DoF are totally inept and that much was clear last season, but also think that it's abundantly obvious these rules aren't fit for purpose. This is exactly how I felt several months ago when people were sneering at us for calling the Premier League corrupt and asking why we don't blame the club and ownership. These rules were either brought in to stop the likes of Newcastle "doing a Man City", or to stop rogue owners from mismanaging their clubs to the point of "doing a Leeds", depending on the agenda of the person trying to explain and defend them. All they're doing is turning that mid-lower tier of the Premier League into a circus and it won't get as much attention, but the Reading situation is scandalous as well. Constantly getting hit with points penalties because their owner is fucking mental. Hitting them with more and more points penalties when the guy who owns them clearly doesn't give a fuck is just driving them further into the ground. Worst of both worlds is exactly right. Clubs having to make competitive sacrifices to offset the poor spending of an incompetent owner and then getting a competitive penalty to hold them account for the actions of an owner that have already harmed the club. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subscriber Dan+ Posted March 8 Subscriber Share Posted March 8 3 hours ago, RandoEFC said: This is exactly how I felt several months ago when people were sneering at us for calling the Premier League corrupt and asking why we don't blame the club and ownership. These rules were either brought in to stop the likes of Newcastle "doing a Man City", or to stop rogue owners from mismanaging their clubs to the point of "doing a Leeds", depending on the agenda of the person trying to explain and defend them. All they're doing is turning that mid-lower tier of the Premier League into a circus and it won't get as much attention, but the Reading situation is scandalous as well. Constantly getting hit with points penalties because their owner is fucking mental. Hitting them with more and more points penalties when the guy who owns them clearly doesn't give a fuck is just driving them further into the ground. Worst of both worlds is exactly right. Clubs having to make competitive sacrifices to offset the poor spending of an incompetent owner and then getting a competitive penalty to hold them account for the actions of an owner that have already harmed the club. I think what's so depressing, and I'm sure you can relate to this, is just how much yet another non-football intervention is dominating the game. If it isn't VAR, it's FFP. If it isn't FFP, it's PSR. And so on. This is not to say Everton and Leicester don't deserve some comeuppance for what's been done. I could write a hell of a lot of detail about the things we've gotten wrong in the last 5 years. But how bad a spectacle is football truly becoming now. Goals decided in a studio. Relegation decided in the courtroom. It's absolute joyless rubbish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subscriber RandoEFC+ Posted March 8 Subscriber Share Posted March 8 7 hours ago, Dan said: I think what's so depressing, and I'm sure you can relate to this, is just how much yet another non-football intervention is dominating the game. If it isn't VAR, it's FFP. If it isn't FFP, it's PSR. And so on. This is not to say Everton and Leicester don't deserve some comeuppance for what's been done. I could write a hell of a lot of detail about the things we've gotten wrong in the last 5 years. But how bad a spectacle is football truly becoming now. Goals decided in a studio. Relegation decided in the courtroom. It's absolute joyless rubbish. This is exactly what I've been saying all season. Everton have spent 4 months not knowing how many points we actually had because basically everyone in the world knew that the 10 points couldn't be allowed to stand. Now we have closure to some extent but you can't deny the 4 point difference that was incorrectly allowed to stand has impacted on the integrity of the competition this season. You could argue any number of things about Luton getting a huge boost from our penalty, the 10 point weight on the players impacting our form over the past few months, the impact on Luton, Brentford and Forest now that the league table has been rewritten in our favour. The most scandalous thing of all is that if Everton and/or Forest decide to appeal the upcoming judgements on this season's breaches then the appeals won't be heard until after the final weekend of the season, so Luton could finish 17th, 1 point ahead of Nottingham Forest, and then an appeals panel is going to decide whether or not they've actually stayed up. It's an absolute disgrace yet nobody in the media is even giving lip service to it. Who cares about the sporting integrity of the bottom half of the Premiership or the rest of the English football pyramid when we can spend an hour of Sky Sports News analysing how much Phil Foden's xGA has increased over the last 12 monhts, the average age of Liverpool's bench, what Jim Ratcliffe's investment means for the Old Trafford roof and how many records Arsenal have broken this month by beating most of the bottom half of the league 5 or 6 nil each who aren't allowed to spend money on improving themselves? The PSR breaches have dominated our season. You're absolutely correct. Supporting Everton this season has been taking a short course in football finances to try and understand how many points we might get back, waiting around while the Premier League piss around for 5 months over whether or not the shambolic cowboys that are 777 will be allowed to buy the football club off the Iranian lunatic who has already absolutely ruined it, with the potential threat of administration looming if they don't allow it, and watching our shoestring squad try to overcome their glaring limitations by anti-footballing and set piece-ing their way to the 40 point mark, all for the privilege of starting the whole thing again in August. Football is absolutely on its arse. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator Stan Posted March 8 Author Administrator Share Posted March 8 2 minutes ago, RandoEFC said: Football is absolutely on its arse. Maybe because it's closer to home that it's now occurring, but I've never been closer to agreeing with this too until now. Like Dan mentioned, football is being decided by stuff off the pitch as opposed to on it, out of the control of the players and fans. Especially the latter that pour their heart and soul into the club, only for that soul of the league and industry to be ripped apart by external factors. It's really depressing. As a fan I'll still support my club, but I do think at times now what is the actual point when it seems even we can't influence things positively like before. I often look back at our 15/16 win not just because of nostalgia, but also it appeared to seriously piss off the hierarchy and it perhaps signalled the beginning of the end of hope for non-big-six clubs to compete. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subscriber RandoEFC+ Posted March 8 Subscriber Share Posted March 8 2 hours ago, Stan said: Maybe because it's closer to home that it's now occurring, but I've never been closer to agreeing with this too until now. Like Dan mentioned, football is being decided by stuff off the pitch as opposed to on it, out of the control of the players and fans. Especially the latter that pour their heart and soul into the club, only for that soul of the league and industry to be ripped apart by external factors. It's really depressing. As a fan I'll still support my club, but I do think at times now what is the actual point when it seems even we can't influence things positively like before. I often look back at our 15/16 win not just because of nostalgia, but also it appeared to seriously piss off the hierarchy and it perhaps signalled the beginning of the end of hope for non-big-six clubs to compete. No, the whole establishment (PL, Sky, etc.) didn't like Leicester's title win at all and from what I understand that isn't a secret amongst footballing circles either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Posted March 8 Share Posted March 8 https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/apr/11/leicester-city-finances-football-league-financial-fair-play-investigation What goes around comes around . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator Stan Posted March 8 Author Administrator Share Posted March 8 I knew you'd pop up with that Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whiskey Posted March 8 Share Posted March 8 I think this certainly puts a black mark against the Premier League title win for Leicester. Another club in the bracket of City and to a lesser extent Chelsea. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator Stan Posted March 9 Author Administrator Share Posted March 9 13 hours ago, Whiskey said: I think this certainly puts a black mark against the Premier League title win for Leicester. Another club in the bracket of City and to a lesser extent Chelsea. Wum is obvious. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator Stan Posted March 21 Author Administrator Share Posted March 21 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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